Project duration: 8 months
Project scope:
– Technical and aesthetic design of a carbonated drink bottle, based on inputs from the customer
– Testing of pilot mould and bottle samples as per international standards
– Manufacturing of moulds for different rotary blowing machines (> 50 moulds)
Project synopsis:
The objective of this project was to design a common bottle for different flavours of carbonated drinks and manufacture moulds for six franchise-bottling operations of a global beverage brand in India. This was what we call a “full scale project”, which starts with designing the bottle, followed by pilot mould trials and ends with the manufacturing of commercial moulds for each franchise.
Bottle designing
- Based on the customer inputs like product application, pack-size and preform weights, we initiated the process of designing the bottle
- With our in-house team of design engineers using state-of-the-art 3D modelling soft-wares, we gave the customer multiple design options, out of which one was finalised.
Pilot mould trials
- Since the design was new and the order quantity was large, we manufactured a pilot mould and conducted trials at our end.
- The bottle samples were tested rigorously as per international standards. Parameters like section weights, material thickness, base clearance, stress crack, thermal expansion were among many others that were checked.
- The final bottle samples were sent to the customer for approval
Mould manufacturing
- The manufacturing of moulds commenced after getting approval from the customer.
- We manufactured moulds for different rotary machines like Sidel SBO, Krones, Sacmi and SIPA. Each machine required 10 to 20 moulds. Although similar in operation, the mould construction varies for each brand. These moulds need to be accurate to the last micron. Only then can these robust moulds produce thousands of bottles every hour for years together with consistent quality.